Plan passed as part of state budget

Published: Saturday, July 27, 2013 at 06:08 PM.

To know the contentiousness of the school voucher debate in the state, a look into a couple comments on the state budget — with taxpayer-funded “opportunity scholarships” in it — provides some color.

“The de-funding of public education and privatization of our public schools is in violation of our state constitution and a direct attack on our state’s economic viability,” said Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of Pubic Schools First NC, in a statement.

The reaction of those who backed vouchers — or scholarship grants, as they’re called in the budget — consequently swung in the other direction.

Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, said in a statement the opportunity scholarships and a similar plan for disabled students, “represent a growing momentum in our state to ensure that every child receives the education best suited to their needs, which we know will help increase the quality of education they receive.”

Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, public school students will be eligible to apply to receive a scholarship grant, which would apply to the tuition at a qualifying nonpublic school. Grants are capped at $4,200 a year.

Rep. John Bell, R-Wayne, backed the measure, saying that whether a student is in public school — or tax dollars follow that child to a private school — those tax dollars are going to further their education.

He didn’t, however, believe there would be a lot of local participation in the program.

To know the contentiousness of the school voucher debate in the state, a look into a couple comments on the state budget — with taxpayer-funded “opportunity scholarships” in it — provides some color.

“The de-funding of public education and privatization of our public schools is in violation of our state constitution and a direct attack on our state’s economic viability,” said Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of Pubic Schools First NC, in a statement.

The reaction of those who backed vouchers — or scholarship grants, as they’re called in the budget — consequently swung in the other direction.

Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, said in a statement the opportunity scholarships and a similar plan for disabled students, “represent a growing momentum in our state to ensure that every child receives the education best suited to their needs, which we know will help increase the quality of education they receive.”

Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, public school students will be eligible to apply to receive a scholarship grant, which would apply to the tuition at a qualifying nonpublic school. Grants are capped at $4,200 a year.

Rep. John Bell, R-Wayne, backed the measure, saying that whether a student is in public school — or tax dollars follow that child to a private school — those tax dollars are going to further their education.

He didn’t, however, believe there would be a lot of local participation in the program.

“With the way our schools are, if you don’t have the means to go to a private school, yes, a voucher would help, but we’re such a rural area overall, we really don’t have but a few private schools, and really I just don’t think it will have that dramatic an impact,” Bell said.

Rep. George Graham, D-Lenoir, said that care should be taken when tax dollars go to private or charter schools instead of traditional public schools, and working-class families could miss out anyway if tuition is too much in excess of the grant.

“I don’t know what the tuition is of our private schools, and how much difference $4,200 makes toward that tuition,” Graham said.

For a student to receive a grant, they have to meet one of the following criteria: was a full-time public school student the previous semester, received a grant the previous year (after 2014-15), entering kindergarten or first grade, in foster care, or adopted no longer than one year before the grant application.

The student’s family income also must be less than 133 percent of the federal standard for qualifying for reduced or free lunch. The legislation doesn’t specify which standard, however. Reduced-price meals are pegged at 185 percent of the poverty line and free lunch eligibility is at 130 percent of the poverty line, which is $23,550 for a family of four.

If the reduced-price lunch standard is used, a family of four with an income of $57,945 and lower would be eligible. If administrators apply the free lunch standard, a family of four with an income of $40,718 and lower would qualify.

Arendell Parrott Academy Headmaster Peter Cowen said his school already provides assistance for students to attend APA.

“Our school provides need-based aid for families whose children are qualified to attend our school, because we want to have a healthy cross-section of students from all socioeconomic backgrounds at our school,” Cowen said.

There are a fair number of obligations for a participating school, from reporting statistics and documentation to standardized testing and fee restrictions. Cowen said that the requirements of the program for schools accepting students with scholarship grants would be closely studied before APA would be involved.

“We’re an independent school, so we do things without government oversight, and we wouldn’t want to lose that independence,” Cowen said.

The Lenoir County Public Schools’ office was closed when contacted Friday. Superintendent Steve Mazingo did not respond to a message as of press time.

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.